Stoke strength on home soil means they have beating of Man City
Published:
Matt Haynes | December 4, 2015
Stoke City v Manchester City
- Premier League
- Saturday, December 5th
- Kick-off: 12:45 GMT
- Britannia Stadium, Stoke
- Live on BT Sport 1
Stoke to go toe-to-toe with City
Mark Hughes welcomes his former employer’s to the Britannia, with the hosts Stoke, 17/4 with Coral to win the match.
While this particular fixture last season ended in a 4-1 victory to Manuel Pellegrini’s side, they did arrive with a point to prove having been beaten 1-0 in the reverse six months earlier thanks to a Mame Biram Diouf strike.
This time round, Stoke who visit West Ham next in the Premier League, actually have the talent within their squad to compete with City in a more expansive style.
Summer signings Xherdan Shaqiri and Ibrahim Afellay are the types of players to relish playing this type of opposition who they can hit on the counter-attack and take advantage of space to run into.
Afellay even scored his first Potters goal last time out in the Capital One Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday and is well priced at 16/1 to break the deadlock once more. Shaqiri, meanwhile, is sure to enjoy outshining likes of Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne and is available at 6/1 in the anytime market.
City Wilf score
Last time out Pellegrini’s side dispatched Hull 4-1 in the Capital One Cup, with Ivory Coast striker Wilfried Bony opening the scoring with the 26-year-old 4/1 to do so again.
Unquestionably, the form player for City this term is new signing De Bruyne who now has three goals in three appearances. Having bagged a brace last time out, the prolific Belgian is 7/1 to equal or better that achievement.
Argentine attacker Aguero struck twice at the Britannia last season and will be looking to pounce once more, with no goals since scoring in the heavy loss to Liverpool. The 27-year-old is 10/3 to net first.
Potters attack carries threatening dynamism
Liverpool showed against City during their 4-1 win at the Etihad, that City can be exposed at the back without influential skipper Vincent Kompany and it isn’t like Stoke don’t have the talent to cause problems.
With Bojan, Diouf and the in-form Marko Arnautovic adding to aforementioned talent all fit and raring to go, City could well be in trouble if their hosts break quickly.
Bojan showed in the win against Arsenal last season just how much he can make Hughes’ side tick, having got on the scoresheet and is 10/3 in the anytime market, while Diouf is 8/1 to net first and add another to his CV against Man City.
The visitors to the Britannia might be top of the Premier League, though they certainly shouldn’t underestimate this Stoke side.
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